September 10, 2008
Nashua Telegraph
MANCHESTER – Gov. John Lynch romped to a third Democratic nomination Tuesday night, vowing to shepherd the state through tough economic times as he faces an aggressive though poorly financed Republican opponent.
Lynch, 55, easily dispatched retired Jaffrey school teacher Kathryn “Katy” Forry, 67, who lampooned Lynch as a cartooned emperor with no clothes for his strict opposition to broad-based taxes to pay for schools.
Forry said she’d lead a statewide dialogue on tax reform and thought an income tax is the fairest way to earmark state aid to education.
Lynch, a Hopkinton resident, won with 35,333, or 90 percent, to 3,783, or 10 percent, for Forry with 78 percent of the vote reported.
“Our families are feeling the impact of the downturn in the national economy. They are worried about how they will stretch their budgets to pay the rising costs of fuel and food. They are worried about keeping their jobs, and their homes,” Lynch said in prepared remarks from his victory speech.
“Now more than ever, our families need a governor who is listening to them, working for them, standing up for them.
“That’s what I try to do every day.”
Lynch said his bipartisan approach led to increasing the school dropout age from 16 to 18, adopting tougher penalties for sexual predators who use the Internet to prey on children and offering tax credits and more job training grants to help companies stay competitive in the global economy.
The Legislature is expected to consider state plans Sept. 24 to help assist families struggling with the soaring costs of home heating oil this winter.
State Sen. Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, 48, faced no Republican primary opposition.
Kenney said Tuesday Lynch has lost credibility as a fiscal conservative by signing a budget that raised state spending 17 percent along with two laws to borrow as much as $100 million to pay for highway work and school construction projects.
“People want to see Concord buckle down, not spend, have the ability to say no and pass budgets that live within our means,” Kenney said.
“They sense that New Hampshire is being confronted by influences that turn us into just another New England state and the New Hampshire advantage could soon become irrelevant.”
Kenney claims the state, with Lynch at the helm, is on the road to a broad-based tax by adopting an education law that starting in 2010 requires up to $100 million more a year.
“He’s been the Teflon governor. Nothing sticks to him, but I’m going to show he’s been covering up his tracks, cutting spending after he spent too much, borrowing money when we’re a pay as you go state, not showing leadership on education funding,” Kenney said.
To balance three state budgets, Lynch has passed three increases in the state’s tax on cigarettes, raised turnpike tolls, car registration and a myriad of fees and licenses.
Lynch notes the state has retained the second, lowest state and local tax burden per capita behind only Alaska, which relies heavily on oil and gas taxes.
To this point, Lynch has ignored Kenney who’s yet to have raised 10 percent of what’s in Lynch’s re-election campaign kitty.
Lynch is likely at upcoming debates, if not earlier, to rebuke Kenney’s opposition to a land and building preservation program and regional effort to reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Education funding remains the biggest failure of Lynch’s tenure.
In 2006 and 2008, the House of Representatives, under Republican and Democratic leadership, rejected his pleas to amend the state constitution and shift money from wealthier school districts to needier ones within the existing state aid pool.
Lynch vows to renew this cause in a third term, but Kenney said only he could get it done.
“He could have called a constitutional convention this year or locked down the Legislature until they passed his amendment,” said Kenney, who opposed Lynch’s version and endorsed a GOP alternative.
“Instead, the House locked the doors so they could put millions on a state credit card,” Kenney said.
Democratic legislative leaders point out Republican governors pushed through similar, legal borrowing schemes and the debt is only issued if the state faces a deficit.
Last month, a non-partisan think tank concluded the 2010-11 state budget faces a structural deficit between $167 million and $460 million.
Aides say Lynch, upon taking office in 2005, faced up to a $300 million deficit, and he would grapple with a future one the same way through zero-based budgeting and absolute opposition to a sales or income tax.
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Note: A recent report states that under Democrat leadership, NH has now slipped in bond rating and also is the 5th not 2nd lowest tax burden per person.